Koneko
by Hikari-Hero
Summary: After months of begging, Alphonse finally gets his way and he immediately takes his brother to the other side of Central for a visit to the younger's favorite place in the entire empire of Central! Elricest! R&R plz!


Hikari: This is a present for Princess Ixi, she's a good friend of mine and this ish (yes, I meant to say 'ish' instead of 'is') her early Christmas present! Enjoy, especially you Princess Ixi!

**Please note I am still writing Forbidden Love, the chapters are very long and hard to write at the moment, that is all! 'Sides, this is another break from depression for you guys and a gift to one of my bestest buddies of all time!**

'Koneko' means 'Kitten' in Japanese! It is one of the first Japanese words I learned and I've been dying to use it for quite some time now! XP

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**Koneko**

"C'mon, please Niisan!" Alphonse continued to beg his unyielding older brother over and over again; his silver eyes were full of the innocence and compassion that would make the elder of the two adolescents melt into a puddle on the spot if given the chance.

"Go do it yourself! I have a lot of work to do right now, Alphonse!" Edward protested, finding it hard to not look into his brother's gentle silver gaze without his features flushing a deep shade of scarlet.

"Please Niisan! You get to play with them and everything!" Alphonse insisted. Anybody else would have given up at this point, but the younger Elric knew his obstinate brother would break for him sooner or later.

"No." Ed retorted, his face portrayed his stubborn attitude as he folded his arms across his chest; but Alphonse was determined to win this time around.

"Please?" The silver-eyed teenager asked once more. Edward sighed and ran a hand through his golden hair; he was tired of this; Alphonse had been bugging him about this for at least a zillion times this month.

"No!" Ed said his reply a little more forcefully, trying to get his unrelenting younger brother to stop asking him for the same thing over and over again.

"C'mon, it's going to be a lot of fun, Niisan!" Al replied, trying to change his uncompromising brother's mind.

"For the millionth time, Alphonse, no!" Ed spat out his response irritably, turning around and starting to walk off.

"Please Niisan." Alphonse pouted, stopping his brother in his tracks as he grabbed onto the adolescent alchemist's sleeve and pulled on it gently, his eyes fixed on his golden older sibling. Ed mentally kicked himself; he couldn't believe that he let Al gain control over him again, "I want you to come with me…." Alphonse said softly, tugging on his brother's sleeve again as delicately as he could. The golden-eyed boy sighed and ran his free hand through his gold hair, allowing himself to unenthusiastically give into his younger brother's request.

"Oh…all right..." Ed reluctantly responded; Alphonse's face instantaneously lit up with bliss, seconds after he heard his brother begin to speak again, "But only for a little while, all right?" He heard his brother add to his statement; the younger of the two nodded, telling his brother he understood, and let go of his older sibling's sleeve, only to grab onto the unsuspecting teenager's flesh hand, causing the cocky adolescent's features to glow in a bright crimson hue from the simple, yet, affectionate contact. Alphonse giggled from the rare look on his brother's face as he pulled his speechless sibling out of the dorm room and began to drag him through the long maze of halls that made up most of Central Headquarters. Not a single individual in the building was even the slightest surprised that Soul and Fullmetal were holding hands for they already knew the fact that the brothers were together as a couple and, frankly, they were okay with it.

"Jeez, Al, you're going to pull the automail out of the port again if you keep hauling me around by it like this!" Ed's voice filled the hallways as he reminded his little brother of his prosthetic arm and leg. Roy looked up from his paperwork just in time to see the two teenage alchemists run by his open office door. He smirked and shook his head.

"What are they up to now?" Roy muttered under his breath as he rolled his eyes before returning his attention back to his mountain of paperwork; being Fuhrer had its ups and downs, too.

"Boys, where are you going?" Riza asked as the brothers zoomed passed her in the hallways, almost causing her to drop the files she was carrying back to her husband's office.

"To a Feline Facility!" Ed called over his shoulder in response, "Al's been begging me to go with him for at least a month now!"

"Have fun, you two!" Riza called back to the two young alchemists, waving to them as they disappeared around a corner.

"Slow down, Al, it's not like the Facility is going to go fall off of the face of the earth unless we get there in the next fifteen minutes!" Ed joked causing his energetic younger sibling to stop and let go of his automail hand.

"Sorry, Niisan." Al smiled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly as a wide grin spread across his gentle features, "It's just that I was so happy that you finally agreed to come with me, that's all." Al added, grabbing his brother's flesh hand this time. But before the Fullmetal Alchemist could make a reply, his mischievous younger brother quickly pecked him on the cheek and started to pull him toward the direction of the Facility again. Edward instinctively placed his cold, automail fingertips to the place his brother's lips had grazed, unintentionally absorbing the heat into the icy prosthetic limb.

----

The Feline Facility was pretty far away from Central Headquarters, but that did not mean that the energetic couple, Edward and Alphonse Elric, wouldn't walk there. It was so rare that the two could relax and take a break and it was beautiful on the temperate summer afternoon, so the heat didn't bother them, since they had been in the hot desert city of Lior for months in the rebel war. Alphonse looked over at his big brother and blushed; it was normal for him to blush whenever he would so much as glance at egotistical, obstinate pubescent alchemist. He smiled to himself and slightly squeezed his brother's flesh hand, causing his older brother go give him a look of concern, as if to ask if something was wrong.

"What do you need? Is something wrong, Alphonse?" Edward asked, Al smiled and shook his head and giggled softly; it was so easy for him to predict what his brother was going to say, probably because the two were meant for each other, even though their love was forbidden amongst society.

"No, nothing's wrong, Niisan, it's just that…" Al cut himself off with a small shake of his head, "Never mind, it's nothing…" Alphonse added. Ed looked at his brother for a little bit longer before deciding it was nothing to get worked up about, Alphonse was probably just thinking about something that did not concern him and he didn't want to press the subject against his brother, so he turned his attention to something else. All of a sudden, something occurred to the older of the two.

"Hey, Alphonse..." Ed started; Al looked at his brother with his brow furrowed and his head cocked to the side ever so slightly that it was almost impossible to tell his head was somewhat tilted to one side.

"What is it, Niisan?" Al asked, his voice laced with his natural innocent tone that could easily make Edward's world spin every time he heard the silver-eyed boy converse.

"How about we get some ice cream? It's really hot and we could use a little break, and it's not like the Facility is going to go anywhere, right?" Ed offered the idea to his little brother.

"Yeah, that's a great idea, Niisan!" Al smiled, agreeing to his brother's rather sweetened suggestion. Alphonse knew Central probably better than his big brother did, so he knew the perfect place to get ice cream on a summer day like this. There was a small shop not too far from their current position that was on the way to the Facility, so they wouldn't waste any time, "I know just the place!" Al beamed, "It's just up ahead!"

"Lead the way then." Ed smiled the response.

"Last one there buys it!" Al smirked in mischief, letting go of his brother's hand and breaking into a run toward the little shop.

"Hey! Wait!" Ed called as he ran after his little brother, "That's not fair; you know where it is, Alphonse!" Ed shouted, Al looked back at him with a mischievous smirk on his usually innocent features.

"Run faster, then, it's straight ahead…" Al paused, getting a strangely devilish idea, "Or are you too pocket-sized to run as fast as me, Niisan?"

That was where the irascible teen drew the line. Nobody; and his little brother was no exception to this, called him anything along the lines of 'undersized' or 'midget'. Ed growled in the back of his throat as he clenched his teeth.

"Take that back, Alphonse!" Ed shouted his angry response to his little brother. Suddenly, the younger Elric stopped in his tracks, looked back at his miffed brother as an uncanny devilish smirk spread across his face.

"Make me!" He called over to his brother, standing in front of their destination, "I dare you, Pipsqueak!" Ed winced at the dreaded thing his younger sibling had _dared_ to call him and growled in the back of his throat, almost sounding exactly like a dog.

"Alphonse! You better take that back if you know what's good for you!" Ed snarled, darting toward his little brother's location. Within moments he was standing in front of his somewhat taller sibling with a ticked off look on his face. Alas, Alphonse wasn't done messing with his brother just yet…

"Oh, are you upset, little guy?" Al asked teasingly, ruffling his brother's hair. Ed responded to this by darkening his already threatening golden glare.

"Shut it, Al…" Ed warned, Al smiled softly and surprised his annoyed older brother with a small kiss on the lips. And in an instant, the anger just melted off of the older boy's features.

"Feeling better now, Niisan?" Alphonse inquired as he took his brother by the hand and lead him inside the shop.

----

A few minutes later, the two were enjoying vanilla ice-cream cones inside the air-conditioned store. Ed was twirling his around as he licked it so he could get the vanilla cream before it drizzled off the cone and onto the table whilst Al was licking his here and there and it was easy to tell that he wasn't really paying attention to the fact some of his refreshing treat was dribbling off the sides of the cone, he was too preoccupied by looking at his older brother. Edward took a small lick towards the middle of the scoop of ice-cream and got some on the tip of his nose. Al giggled and leaned over the table and licked it off like a cat would and a deep crimson hue appeared on Ed's face in response to his brother's cute action.

----

Ed finished his cone after another minute or so passed and Al quickly finished his soon after so that they could go to the Facility as planned. As they left the shop, Ed looked up at the sky; the clouds that were so white and fluffy where now dark and gray and Edward knew it was going to rain soon, so he nudged his little brother with his elbow to get his attention.

"What is it?" Al asked his big brother.

"We better hurry up; it's going to rain soon." Ed murmured, Al looked up at the sky and agreed with his brother. He looked down the street and smiled. The Feline Facility was just a few blocks down. As he looked back over at his brother he smiled and took his brother's flesh hand in his own and started to run toward the Facility. A few seconds later it began to rain…

Alphonse was so full of ecstasy when they got inside the building; he was practically bouncing off the walls in his excitement. He knew that this place was loaded with little ickle kittens and he just loved them all to death. Ed paid the teenage girl working the front desk and had to grab his little brother by the back of the shirt to somewhat calm him down.

"Have a nice visit; I hope you enjoy the kittens!" The girl smiled.

"Thanks…" Ed paused, looking at the girl's name tag, which read 'manager' and below it 'Alice', "Alice...?" He finished his statement, the girl nodded.

"If you have any questions, just ask me!" The teen girl beamed her reply. After his kitty obsessed sibling calmed down, Ed let go of him and shoved his hands into his pockets as he slowly followed his exhilarated younger sibling through the building.

Ed looked around; there were huge aviaries full of cats and kittens. He smirked and continued to scan his surroundings. The only thing that he could hear was the cats and kittens meowing. He knew that a Feline Facility was so that cats and kittens could test out new foods. His gaze trailed over to the aviary that his little brother was at, playing with the kittens. Edward rolled his eyes; of course Al was playing with the _kittens_ instead of cats, even though he loved cats just as much as the kittens, but he was really interested in the little tiny kittens. Alphonse looked up at his brother and smiled, he quickly put the kittens down and rushed over to his older sibling's side and pointed toward the aviary he was just at a few seconds ago.

"Come here, Niisan! You've got to see this kitten, she is so cute!" Al squealed, grabbing his brother by the hand, dragging him to one of the large cages that were filled with cats and kittens, he pulled his brother into it and picked up a small calico kitten. It was mostly white and had light patches of tawny and a few spots of brown on its body, and it had one, small, tawny misshapen dot between its eyes. Ed smiled and gently scratched the creature behind its left ear, "Isn't she a little sweetheart, Ed?"

"Yeah, she is…" Ed said softly, looking into the kitten's light blue eyes. Al handed the kitten to his brother and started to play with the other ones. He absolutely adored the tiny, fuzzy beings. Ed started to scratch the kitten under its chin, as a result, the tiny creature purred and Ed could feel its petite body vibrate as it did so. His golden gaze trailed over to his little brother, who was clearly enjoying himself playing with the little things. Al looked at his brother; he wondered why his older brother wouldn't let him keep a kitten when he knew that he loved cats so much, it just didn't make any sense. Surely Roy and Riza would make an exception for them to keep a pet in their dorm since they had nowhere else to go but to Headquarters. But what he didn't know was that Ed was fond of the four-legged balls of fur and mischief, the only reason he wouldn't let his younger brother keep one was because he felt neglected whenever his little brother found a kitten or cat.

Time slipped by fast and it was time for Ed and Al to start heading back to Central Headquarters before it got too dark. Alphonse was reluctant about leaving the kittens, especially the light colored calico that even Edward seemed to like. Ed stopped in the main lobby.

"What are you doing, Niisan?" Al questioned his brother's atypical behavior.

"You go ahead, I'll be right out." Ed smiled slightly. Al nodded and walked outside of the building. A few minutes later Ed walked outside and took his brother by the hand and started to walk back to Central Headquarters.

Slowly, eyes of captured sun opened groggily. Edward sat up and glanced at the clock on the wall. 5:30. He groaned, but shook his head, slowly crawling out from beneath the thin sheets. The tired alchemist stretched and yawned softly, quickly getting dressed and haphazardly putting his hair into a ponytail, walking out of the dorm room without waking his little brother.

As he made his way through the maze of halls, Ed bumped into Roy. Roy looked at the teenage boy in front of him in confusion. Normally Edward didn't wake up until 11:30. Naturally, he assumed something was wrong with the adolescent alchemist.

"Are you feeling all right, Fullmetal?" He inquired the tired teen.

"Why do you ask?" Ed snapped, glaring at the dark-haired middle-aged man that was standing in his way in an unenthusiastic manner.

"Well for one, it looks like a two year old did your hair for you." Roy observed. Ed blinked in perplexity and reached back to feel his ponytail. It was on the left side of his head. He muttered a few choice words under his breath and pulled the hair tie from his hair and neatly plaited his hair instead, "You also look like you are half dead, Fullmetal. And you sleep until around noon on a daily basis."

"So I got up early." Ed shrugged; Roy raised an eye brow, "Okay, I woke up _really_ early." Ed corrected himself, "But that's only because I'm going to get that present for Alphonse we talked about last night, remember?"

"Oh, _that_." Roy replied in realization, "Well, you better hurry; your little brother wakes up around seven." Ed nodded and yawned, continuing to slowly make his way through the long hallways.

----

Alphonse awoke at 7:00 A.M. sharp. He sat up and yawned, rubbing the sleep from his silvery hued eyes. He looked over at his brother's bed, expecting to see his brother sprawled all over the mattress, but he only saw messed up sheets. Hurriedly, he got out of bed and looked around for any trace of his big brother; it wasn't normal for his brother to get up before him, or before noon for that matter. Something must be wrong for his brother to get up so early, but he figured it wasn't something too serious or his brother would've woken him up to tell him before leaving. He pushed his worry aside and got ready for the day and left the dorm room and locked the door behind him.

----

As the dirty-blonde teen explored the halls of Central Headquarters on his own, he noticed that Havoc, Fuery, Falman, and Breda were in a friendly conversation, making fun of Breda's silly fear of dogs and teasing Havoc about his sorry love life. Jean looked over at the young alchemist and smiled.

"Hey, Alphonse, you can come over here, we won't bite!" Jean called over to the teen. Alphonse stood there for a moment before hesitantly walking over to the group of military officers. Jean patted him on the back softly and continued to talk to the other three men. Al felt like a misfit because he had no idea about what these adult officers were talking about, and frankly, he did not really care. He was thinking about something else right now…he was thinking about his older brother…his Niisan.

"What about you, Alphonse?" Fuery asked, snapping Al out of his trance-like state in an instant.

"Huh? What?" Al asked, his brow furrowed in confusion as he looked at the small group of adult military officers he was standing in.

"We were talking about what we do with our lovers, Alphonse." Fuery explained causing the younger Elric to blush in realization. They were talking about their love lives. Of course they all knew that he was together with not only his brother, but the only living family member he had left on this world.

"Well, what are you and Fullmetal doing?" Falman inquired, only resulting in deepening the crimson hue that had begun to spread across Al's features rapidly, "Well? Are you doing anything in bed, yet?" The older man egged him on.

"N-no!" Alphonse quickly responded, his blush continuing to spread across his features. Breda got Alphonse in a headlock and gave him a noogie. Al writhed in the older man's hold and finally freed himself and tried to fix his hair.

"Aw, c'mon, you have to be doing more than holding hands and giving each other those cute little looks, kid!" Breda teased him. Alphonse looked at the ground, trying to hide his reddening face. He felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

"C'mon, guys, leave the poor kid alone." The voice belonged to Havoc. Al sighed in relief, he really was not comfortable talking to people about his awkward, yet perfect relationship he was in with his older brother, Havoc leaned down slightly, "Get out of here before they start asking the _really_ perverted questions, Soul." Al's face reddened and he nodded and quickly scampered out of the room. The young boy couldn't think of anything that was more perverted than the question they had asked him earlier. He started to walk down the halls, his eyes fixed on the ground so nobody could tell that his face was so red. But because he wasn't paying attention, he bumped into Riza and sent her files full of paperwork flying. She sighed and kneeled down and started to pick up the many pieces of paper, Al got down on his knees too and started to help her.

"Sorry, Riza, I wasn't watching where I was going." Al apologized; Riza looked at him and smiled, slightly shaking her head.

"It's all right, Alphonse. Don't get yourself so worked up about this, its okay, really." Riza explained, putting the papers back into the correct folders. Al handed her his pile of papers and she thanked him as she sorted the different papers into their assigned folders. Quickly, she scooped the folders into her arms and walked toward Roy's office. Alphonse did mean to ask her if she had seen his brother, but he figured that she was far too busy at the moment, so he didn't bother her with it.

----

Noon rolled around faster then expected and there was still no sign of his older brother anywhere. That's when Alphonse started to get worried and anxiety took control. What if Edward was hurt? He couldn't recall any news about serial killers or any mysterious murders lately, actually, Central was in a peaceful state right now, one of those rare times when nothing bad was happening. But the anxiety that had built up inside was getting the best of the young silver-eyed alchemist. He walked back up the dorm and opened the door, only to see his brother waiting for him.

"Niisan?" Al asked, the anxiety melting away faster than ice in an oven. Edward smiled in response to his brother's voice.

"Hey, Al." Ed replied, his hands behind his back. Al narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Where were you, Ed?" He demanded softly, trying not to sound as mad and worried as he really was.  
"Oh that…" Ed murmured, his voice returning to normal after those two words passed his lips, "I was getting you a present, Alphonse, that's all. Why? What did you think I was doing?" Ed inquired innocently.

"What kind of present?" Alphonse asked, his face taking on a suspicious and confused expression. Ed laughed softly and showed his brother what he was hiding from behind his back. It was a box the size of a small package with holes in it. The golden-eyed teen gently pushed the box into his younger brother's arms.

"Open it; I know you're going to like it, Alphonse." Ed said softly, his golden eyes locking with Al's silver. Alphonse slowly undid the ribbon that kept he box bound shut and opened the lid; the adolescent's face lit up in an instant. It was the tiny white brown and tawny patched calico kitten that they had seen at the Feline Facility. He picked it up and snuggled it, the tiny being purred and licked Al's face with its minute pink tongue. Alphonse giggled and kissed his brother's cheek.

"Thank you so much, Niisan!" Al smiled, hugging the furry creature lovingly, "But…how did you get it?" He asked, Ed smiled nervously and ran a hand through his hair, his golden eyes darting to the floor.

"I pulled a few strings here at Central Headquarters with Roy and Feline Facility last night and Roy agreed to let you keep a pet in the dorm, so he phoned up the Facility and talked to the manager about. The manager agreed to let us have one and I gave Roy a description of the little guy and I had to go pick it up this morning before they got too busy, I'm glad you like it." Edward smiled, Alphonse smiled and placed the kitten down and it scampered off, exploring its new home. Alphonse wrapped his arms around his brother's neck and kissed his brother's cheek once again just to show how much he loved the gift.

"I'll take good care of her I promise! I just love her!" Al smiled, pausing when he noticed the slightly saddened look on his brother's face, "But I love you more than anything in the world, you know that, right?" Al asked, kissing his brother on the lips tenderly. When he pulled away the small that had vanished for only moments had returned back to the cocky alchemist's features and the red hue on his face was growing with each second before the teen nodded to some extent.

"Yeah, I know, Alphonse, I know." Edward smiled, kissing his brother back with just as much passion, "You're my world, Aru…my world…."

**Owari

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Hikari: If you didn't like the kitten...screw you! Who doesn't love Aru and Edo with a cute ickle kitten around! -picks up the koneko- Who's the cutest ickle kitten in the entire universe? You are! You are!!! -starts rambling baby-ish talk to the ickle kitten for an unestimated amount of time-

Al: -tugs on Hikari's sleeve- HIKAAARRIIIIIIIIII!!!! You promised you'd write Forbidden Love after this! I'm worried about Niisan!

Hikari: -puts kitten down- ...Yeah, I guess I did, well, c'mon Aru, let's go write chapter 21!


End file.
